Cocteau, Jean ___ 1889-1963 ___ French ___ writer, director

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Cocteau was born at Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris, but his father, a lawyer and amateur painter, committed suicide in 1898. He left school young, and became friends with the actor Edouard de Max who encouraged his poetry writing. A first book, 'La Lampe d'Aladin', was published in 1909. The same year also saw the arrival of Ballets Russes and Sergey Diaghilev to Paris, who involved Cocteau in the theatre world. During World War I, Cocteau served as an ambulance driver; he also met many other writers and artists that gathered in Paris. By 1923, he had become addicted to opium, and, while trying to recover, produced various works, such as the play 'Orpheus', the novel 'Children of the Game', and a first film 'Blood of a Poet'. 'Les Enfants Terribles', which is considered Cocteau's finest work was published in 1929. The same year, he was admitted to hospital with opium poisoning. In the 1930s, Cocteau focused increasingly on films, although in 1936 he undertook a journey round the world, one similar to that described in Jules Verne's story. In the following year, he met the actor Jean Marais, with whom he had a close friendship. During World War II, the Vichy government branded Cocteau a decadent, although he troubled some artistic colleagues by writing a salute to a fascist artist. After the war, he made 'Beauty and the Beast' and turned both 'Orpheus' and 'Les Enfants Terribles' into films. Cocteau's diaries have been published in English in various forms, covering various periods.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1928-1963 ___ travel people film art culture society creativity self love/sex health

WEB TEXT LINKS
about and a few pages
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Past Tense: The Cocteau Diaries
Opium: The Diary of His Cure
Beauty and the Beast: Diary of a Film
 

May 2005, August 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.